In brief remarks aimed both at lawmakers and the voters who will almost certainly get the final say, Giffords symbolically cast her story of surviving a shooting rampage as an argument for requiring the checks for all gun sales.

“Be bold, be courageous,” she urged. “The nation is counting on you.”

Giffords, a Democrat who was shot in the head during a rampage that killed six and injured a dozen others, subsequently retired from Congress and founded her own national gun-violence-prevention group.

She and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, spoke Tuesday at a state House Judiciary Committee hearing on Initiative 594, which would mandate the universal background checks, and Initiative 591, which would keep the current system requiring the checks only for sales from licensed firearm dealers.

The proposals — initiatives to the Legislature — are getting hearings in the House and Senate this week even though they are expected to end up on the November ballot. Lawmakers can pass such initiatives into law but usually punt them to voters.

State Rep. Laurie Jinkins, who chairs the Judiciary panel, said she does not even plan to bring up the measures for committee votes.

“I don’t see the purpose of doing that,” said Jinkins, D-Tacoma, adding she held the hearing out of respect for the hundreds of thousands of residents who signed petitions to qualify the initiatives for consideration.

Judging by Tuesday’s turnout, residents appreciated the courtesy.

Hundreds poured onto the Capitol campus for the afternoon hearing, filling 46 sign-in sheets for public testimony, according to committee staff. Only a fraction actually got to testify, with the rest relegated to the hallway or the state House chambers, where video of the hearing was projected onto a large screen.

Those who did testify were evenly divided between supporters and opponents of universal background checks.

Kelly, who had previously testified in support of similar laws in Colorado, Nevada and Delaware, played up his Washington state connections: He noted he used to live on Whidbey Island and mentioned Seattle’s May 2012 Cafe Racer shootings before discussing several more recent tragedies.

“Since celebrating the new year, America has seen a school shooting every other day,” Kelly said.